ABSTRACT: So is the much heralded, universally adopted, corporate leniency program really the best way to get us there? There is little question that these programs have had some success. For the past decade and more, numerous corporations around the world have lined up with their mea culpas to avail themselves of these regulatory absolutions. And the lines seem to be getting longer all the time. But do these programs go far enough, and are they worth the cost? Or are they more of an albatross, getting in our way, diverting us from other avenues that depend less on the complicity of the wrongdoers and more on the exertions of the victims or, better yet, those tasked with protecting us from this blight. Perhaps it is time to take a step back and reconsider where we are in cartel detection and reassess what has up until now been the unquestioned primacy of corporate leniency in the competition enforcement scheme.